Waste-derived Low-cost Mycelium Nanopapers with Tunable Mechanical and Surface Properties

Mycelium, the vegetative growth of filamentous fungi, has attracted increasing commercial and academic interest in recent years because of its ability to upcycle agricultural and industrial wastes into low-cost, sustainable composite materials. However, mycelium composites typically exhibit foam-like mechanical properties, primarily originating from their weak organic filler constituents. Fungal growth can be alternatively utilized as a low-cost method for on-demand generation of natural nanofibrils, such as chitin and chitosan, which can be grown and isolated from liquid wastes and byproducts in the form of fungal microfilaments. This study characterized polymer extracts and nanopapers produced from a common mushroom reference and various species of fungal mycelium grown on sugarcane byproduct molasses. Polymer yields of ∼10–26% were achieved, which are comparable to those of crustacean-derived chitin, and the nanopapers produced exhibited much higher tensile strengths than the existing mycelium material...